Malta has assumed the presidency of the 5+5 defence western Mediterranean initiative, during the annual defence ministers’ meeting of the initiative held in Tripoli this morning.

Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, who was representing Malta on behalf of the Prime Minister,promised that the Maltese presidency would continue building on the considerable success that was achieved so far and reaffirmed the commitment of all partners to increase their reciprocal trust by cooperating together.

The Defence Initiative was formally established in December 2004 by the signing of a declaration of intent by defence ministers of the participating countries namely Algeria, France, Italy, Libya, Malta, Mauritania, Morocco, Portugal, Spain and Tunisia.

his initiative provides the only all en-compassing multi-lateral forum for defence and security matters for the western Mediterranean. It aims to encourage dialogue and cooperation between the participating States through an annual action plan agreed to at steering committee level and endorsed by ministers in their annual meeting.

The committee is chaired for one year by a representative of ministry holding the presidency. This role is rotated between the participating countries in alphabetical order, according to name of the countries in English. Malta’s current chair will be followed next year by Mauritania. The priority for the Malta 5+5 Presidency will be to promote search and rescue.